Gallery of 12-tone just intonation scales

Just Intonation is an infinite universe. A justly-intoned pentatonic can be very effective in the hands of a sensitive composer, and in this electronic age that same composer on another day can use a scale with hundreds of notes in an octave.

One approach to making just intonation not only practical but easy is to map an octave-repeating 12-tone JI scale to a standard keyboard. This page collects some of these scales, and a companion page does the same for tempered scales.

• 12highschool1 - first 12-note highschool scale
• 12highschool2 - second 12-note highschool scale
• 44_39-12 - 12-note chromatic tuning with 352:351, 364:363 by Margo Schulter
• pre-archytas - tuning by Gene Ward Smith
  • Chris Vaisvil, Just Zither Me (details)
• augdommean - Fokkerization of Centaur
• barton - Jacob Barton, tetratetradic scale on 6:7:9:11
• bicycle - George Secor's (also Wilson's and Heathwaite's) 13-limit harmonic bicycle
• biggulp - Big Gulp tuning
  • Chris Vaisvil, improv (details)
• bihexany - hole around [0, 1/2, 1/2, 1/2]
• blue-ji - John O'Sullivan and Carl Lumma
  • Sweeney's Agony
  • Atonement to a Centaur
• bluesji - Graham Breed's Blues scale in a 7-limit JI version
• breedball3 - the third breed ball around 49/40-7/4
• canton - a 2.3.11/7.13/7 subgroup scale
• carlos_harm - Wendy Carlos Harmonic Scale
  • Chris Vaisvil, Valles Marineris
• centaur - a 7-limit tuning discovered by Kraig Grady
  • Chris Vaisvil, Centaur’s Pasture
• chalmers_ji1.scl - based loosely on Wronski's and similar JI scales
• collapsar - an 11-limit patent val superwakalix
• cv scales - epimorphic scales with three major and two minor tetrads
• dekany-cs - Cps({1,3,7,9,11}, 2) union {77/72, 77/64}; Grady-Narushima
• domdimpajinjschis - superwakalix
• domdimpajinjmean - superwakalix, same as miller7, parizek_ji1
• duodene - the Ellis duodene = Dwarf(<12 19 28|) = syndie3 = Euler(675) = Gandhar tuning
• duodene_skew - rotated duodene = magsyn3
• duohex - a scale with two hexanies
• dwarf12_7 - the 7-limit 12-note dwarf
• dwarf12_11 - the 11-limit 12-note dwarf
• genovese_12 - Denny Genovese's superposition of harmonics 8-16 and subharmonics 6-12
• glumma - a <12 19 27 34|-epimorphic rectangular scale
• hexanys
• hobbit_11_limit - Chris Vaisvil's 11 limit JI hobbit
  • Chris Vaisvil, The Forgotten Glory of Wolf’s Motor Court (play)
• locomotive - a 2.9.11.13 subgroup scale
• major_clus - Chalmers' Major Mode Cluster
• major_wing - Chalmers' Major Wing with 7 major and 6 minor triads
• minor_clus - Chalmers' Minor Mode Cluster, Genus [333335]
• minor_wing - Chalmers' Minor Wing with 7 minor and 6 major triads
• max scales - 31 dyads 26 triads 6 tetrads 2 pentads
• mdevelde - a 2.3.5.19 subgroup scale
• nofives - a 3 & 7 scale discovered by Gene Ward Smith
  • Aaron Krister Johnson, piano improvisation
• omaha - a 2.3.11 subgroup scale
• otones12-24 - a.k.a. Mode 12 of the Harmonic Series
• part12 - 9+3=12 partition scale <12 19 27| epimorphic
• portsmouth - a 2.3.7.11 subgroup scale
• prentwind - Prent Rodgers' scale for Dry Hole Canyon for Woodwind Quintet
• prism - Carl Lumma scale
• pris - optimized (15/14)^3 (16/15)^4 (21/20)^3 (25/24)^2 scale
• ptolex - Jon Lyle Smith's extended septimal Ptolemy
  • Jon Lyle Smith, Te Deum Laudamus
• hahn12 - Hahn-reduced 12 note scale
• hahn_7 - Paul Hahn's scale with 32 consonant 7-limit dyads. TL '99
• hahnZ - Paul Hahn's scale Z, TL '99
• harrison_cinna - Lou Harrison, "Incidental Music for Corneille's Cinna"
• harrisonm_rev - Michael Harrison's Revelation Tuning
• hexy - maximized 9-limit harmony containing a hexany
• johnston - Ben Johnston's combined otonal-utonal 11-limit Fokker block
• malcolm - Alexander Malcolm's Monochord (1721)
• malcolm2 - Alexander Malcolm's 1721 scale
• mohajira-to-slendro - Dudon's "From Mohajira to Aeolian and Slendros"
• oljare - Mats Öljare, scale for "Tampere" (2001)
• ramis - monochord of Ramos de Pareja (Ramis de Pareia), Musica practica (1482)
  • Impromptu in F Minor by Zach Curley
• rectoo - Hahn reduced circle of fifths via <12 19 27 34|
• riley_rosary - Terry Riley, tuning for Cactus Rosary (1993)
• Secor5_23TX - George Secor's synchronous 5/23-comma temperament extraordinaire
• serafini-11 - Serafini's 11's chromatic scale, an 11-limit tuning discovered by Carlo Serafini
• sevish - Sean "Sevish" Archibald's scale for Trapped in a Cycle
• simp12 - Stiltner-Vaisvil 12 note 2.3.5.7.13 scale
  • Simpl10plus13 by Chris Vaisvil
• sonbirkezsorted Sonbirkez Huzzam scale
• steel - an 11-limit tuning discovered by Lou Harrison and Bill Slye
  • see David B. Doty's Steel Suite
• stelhex - stellated two out of 1 3 5 7 hexany
• stelhex2 - stellated two out of 1 3 5 9 hexany
• stexhex5 - stellated two out of 1 3 7 9 hexany, stellation is degenerate
• terrain - in effect a generated scale in 2.9/5.9/7 subgroup
• thirteendene - 2.3.5.7.13 marveldene transversal
• unimajor - a 2.3.11/7 subgroup scale
• wilson_class - Erv Wilson's class
• wilsonistic - Margo Schulter's Wilsonistic Pivot on C
  • Chris Vaisvil, A Blue Christmas for Erv
• yekta - Rauf Yekta's 12-tone tuning suggested in 1922 Lavignac Music Encyclopedia
• young-lm_piano- La Monte Young's scale from "The Well-Tuned Piano"
• zeta12 - Margo Schulter's Zeta Centauri tuning, inspired by Kraig Grady's Centaur